MARY JANE TRUMAN &
JOHN CHESTER ELMER
MARY JANE TRUMAN ELMER
as told by herself - July 1980I was born the twelfth of May 1896 in Hebron, Utah to Albert Henry Truman and Florence Matilda Bowler. I believe I was named for my mother's best friend Mary Laub. I asked Mother once if I was named for Dad's sister, Aunt Mary Lois, but she said no.
I was born the third child of eleven children. My two older sisters were Mattie (Elizabeth Matilda) and Esther (Esther Marie). Just younger than me was Bert (Albert Henry). Then came Mabel (Mabel Hill), Dick (Richard Alma), Rod (Rodney Jacob), Ellen (Stillborn), Phyllis, Helen Marie (who died a baby), and Viola.
We lived in Hebron quite awhile. We had a dog, Fido. She was a smart dog. We called her Fid. She'd fetch things for us. If we didn't want to get something we'd send Fid after it. Dad would holler for the bucket to feed the pigs. We'd send Fid to get it as Dad didn't say who he wanted to get it.
One time I remember Dad told Esther to get her shoes for him to put them on her. She said, "I won't do it." So Fid went and got her shoes but Dad made Fid take the shoes back. Dad spanked Esther. I remember crying I felt so bad for Esther. And wondered why Dad made the dog take the shoes back. Esther had defied Dad and he wouldn't stand for that. I remember Dad telling Mother he didn't care if Fid brought the shoes bur Esther couldn't get away with defying him.
We moved to Gunlock from Hebron. We lived In Gunlock until after Mabel was born. Grandma Bowler had died while we were living in Gunlock. I remember how bad mother and I had felt. I remember going up to look at her in her casket.
From Gunlock we moved to Mesquite, Nevada. When we moved to Mesquite I was walking by the side of the wagon and slipped and fell. The wagon wheel ran over my leg. Dad thought my leg might be broken but it wasn't.
While we were in Mesquite, Mother would send to Sister Miller to get our yeast. Lilly Burgess and I went to get our yeast for our mothers. On the way home we met Clara Hughes. We told her that we had gotten the last of the yeast that Sister Miller had. She wanted us to give her half of ours then fill our cups the rest of the way with water from the Virgin River. If we would trade her she'd give us some store bought gum. The gum was so tempting that we did trade the yeast. Our mother's made their bread. The next morning Mrs. Burgess came over and told Mother that her bread hadn't budged at all. Mother then looked at her bread. It hadn't budged either. They said they'd have to tell Sister Miller they wouldn't get their yeast from her anymore if she couldn't do better. Lilly and I had such a conscience of them blaming Sister Miller that we told them what we had done. I think back now and wonder how we could have chewed that gum.
Clara was chewing it when we met her. She toot it out of her mouth and divided it between Lilly and I. To think we traded the yeast for already chewed gum! We had never had store bought gum, just squaw bush gum and pine gum we had gathered.I learned a valuable lesson while going to school in Mesquite. One day a girl wanted me to play. I told her that I couldn't. I hadn't studied my arithmetic yet. She said she always got good grades and didn't study. I asked her how she could do that! She told me that she copied the answers from the book on her slate then turned it for the problems the teacher gave and wrote any answer. When it was time to pass it to the next kid to correct she would turn it to the right answers. I thought I would try it that day too. Only the teacher asked that we pass our slates to her. She turned mine and discovered what I had done. I never felt so bad In all my life. The teacher said that she would have never thought that I would do anything like that. That was the first time and the last that I ever did a trick like that.
While we lived in Mesquite I went to stay with Aunt Hattie Bowler in Gunlock. I was there on my birthday and was baptized there in June in the Santa Clara Creek. My baptismal records were lost and later records showed that I was baptized in December. The year is right --1904.
There was an old man named Jessie that lived in a tent in Gunlock. The kids there would tease him and call him Old Jessie. Dad had told us not to tease people, that it wasn't nice and that we would all be old some day. But one day I was with a group of kids and some Indians rode by. We called one of them "Yellow Jacket." He took out after us as we all scattered and ran as fast as we could. It sure scared the daylights out of us. Probably cured most of us from teasing others.
We girls always went and worked far our Aunts. When our older sisters got married and started having babies we would go stay with them and help them. We earned money selling fruit too. I charged $3.00 a week. Mother thought I was charging too much because others just charged $2.00 or $2.50. But I said if I'm going to work as hard as that I'll get paid for it.
One Sunday the family had gone up to Central to visit. The family went home together but Mabel and I had stayed behind for a young people's party. We were riding a horse home after dark. It must have been after ten. We were spooked by all the sounds. In the morning we knew Mother was unhappy about our staying as she didn't speak to us.
She was a good mother but would sulk if things weren't her way.Father worked for $4O.00. After he got the ranch he worked hard on it. It was a beautiful ranch. He's get up to work at five. We'd sleep 'till eight or nine and then get up and get breakfast. We had a big breakfast of potatoes, gravy, biscuits, ham, preserves. Mother had milk-leg after Dick was born so we girls did all the work. I remember treddllng the sewing machine for Mother while she made baby clothes.
I wanted to learn to milk but Dad didn't want me to. We each got our own cow though so I thought I could learn to milk on her. So after she had her calf I learned to milk. Then, since I knew how, I could help with the milking. We had an old cow, Bell. She had horns and was skittish. We'd give her straw and soothe her before milking. One time I was milking her and some of the little pigs got running around by us. Well, one got in the straw. Bell picked it up with one of her horns and tossed it back. The pig landed on my back. I didn't know what had hit me. I took off running and was running so fast it wouldn't fall off.
Pet was Bell's calf. Dick trained her to be ridden. He would ride her to take the calves to water and pasture and back. Dick was always doing something to make us laugh. One time he was riding a big, black and white sported sow. He was riding her backwards, holding on to her tail. She was running so fast and then slipped under the fence. Dick fell off and looked around to see if anyone was watching.
I taught myself to crochet by picking it out of the Comfort Magazine while I was at the Truman ranch cooking for the men. I would stay up there and do the cooking. Both Mabel and I enjoyed doing embroidery.
One time Dad and some men were in the dining room and I had to walk through. I was, naturally, quiet. One of the men remarked about my quietness. I heard Dad say that "Still water runs deep”. He said he couldn't trust me to stay out of trouble. I never knew quite what he meant but that was the first time I had heard that saying.
As I think back now I think I worried Dad because I was always riding horses when I got the chance. One horse in particular was Dad's Bally. He was supposed to be quite spirited and a one man horse. Whenever I saw him tied up and no one around I would sneak a ride on him. One day I had stolen a ride on him and was coming out of the wash on a gallop. Dick and Bert heard the horse and thought he was running away with me. They had been down working in the cane field. When they came running they had cane stalks in their hands and threw it up at the horse. He reared. I slipped my feet out of the stirrups and fell off in a pile of rocks. As the horse took off I ended up with a hoof print on my thigh but no other injury. Later when they followed the path the horse had taken they found the shreds and pieces of the saddle. The horse ended up back at the barn.
I finished elementary school but never got the chance to go to high school. I always thought of myself as a "Cinderella." I was always working.
When I started working for the road camps I met Chet (John Chester Elmer) while working at the camp near Bunkerville, Nevada. When I first saw him I thought he was cute. We started going together In the fall after I had broken my engagement to Bob Young from Grass Valley, California. Bob had made me realize I didn't want to marry him when we were talking and he said I could be a Mormon but our children would have to be raised in his religion as there were no Mormons in Grass valley. That bothered me as I wanted my children to be raised in the church. So, as soon as spring came Chet and I decided to get married. We were married the 19th of May, 1925 in the St. George Temple.
Mabel and I spent most of our lives around each other and it did not change after we were married. We often lived near each other. When she became blind I moved her to my home and took care of her.
I was often pregnant at the same time as Mabel but was never able to carry the baby the full term. One time I became quite despondent over not being able to have children of my own. Mabel told me that I didn't need a baby, I needed a family. Little did she know I would some day raise her family.
Chet and I were to go to Cannonville to adopt a baby. As we were getting ready to go up Dick died and of course we couldn't go then. Then the weather was so bad and the roads so dangerous we weren't able to go at all. There must have been a reason we were not able to get that baby.
Before Mabel's surgery she asked me to take her family and raise them. I promised I would. Chet so enjoyed the boys. He would take them fishing and swimming. We didn't have a lot but we gave our kids all we could. We didn’t mind sacrificing for them at all.
(During high school) Frances was chosen as Sweetheart queen. She needed a dress. Chet said to get her one. It was getting close to the date and we hadn't found a dress yet. I wrote to someone staying in Salt Lake and asked her to find a dress and send it. I would pay her when I got the dress. We waited and waited and the dress didn't come In the mall. We were driving through Cedar and there in the store window was the most beautiful dress you ever did see. Chet stopped and let us go in and price it. It was $22.00, but he said she needed the dress and she should get it. When we returned home there was a package from Salt Lake with the other dress. It was a beautiful dress, but the one we had gotten in Cedar was perfect. It had sweetheart pockets and lace. The pockets had little red bows on them. We didn't send the other dress back but slink they were both white we dyed the one from Salt Lake a pretty yellow. And Frances had two beautiful dresses. I sewed a lot for her and saw that she was well dressed. Maybe that is where she gets her love of clothes.
I sure appreciated Esther potty training David while she had them when we were in Salt Lake with Mabel. I thought that was really nice.
One time I had gotten up early and cleaned house so that I could bottle beans. I had the floor mopped and waxed. I got some toys and started the boys to playing then went to do my beans. After a while one of the boys came crying to me. He had been hit on the head with a piece of coal. I asked him how that had happened. They had had a coal fight. There was coal dust everywhere. It was a mess. I got it cleaned up as best I could and set them to reading the paper and playing. They had gotten a pair of scissors and cut up paper noodles, they called them. That paper cleaned up the rest of the coal dust as they played with it. It had been a cold day so I had told them to use a slop bucket instead of going out back to the bathroom. As they were getting ready for bed it got knocked over. I just cried. That was the straw that broke the camel's back that day. How I can look back over the years of the things that happened and I have so
many memories.I remember the time that Blaine came home, put his arms around me, and said how he loved me. He joined the Navy at the age of eighteen and remained in until his death on January 16, 1969.
The reason Jerry didn't remain with us is that he chose to go with Bill to Montana. He worried me so with his wanderings around Pioche with its old mines and glory holes. Phyllis and Royal had come up and could see how worried I was about Jerry. Royal said they “would take him back to the ranch and he could learn things that would be
useful to him in life. He could take the cows to pasture and learn to ride a horse. Of course, he wouldn't be able to pay him as he already had a hired hand. And then you wouldn't be worried about him falling down one of these glory holes. He would come back to Pioche in the winter and go to school”. I believe he went to the ranch for two summers then Royal got killed. The next spring he went to June and Esther's for the summer. We clothed him and everything of that sort. Then the next fall he wanted to stay to school there. We felt that if that was what he wanted, that was what he wanted and we let him stay. He stayed 'til his Dad got married and then he wanted to go live with his Dad. After Bill was married he came to see the kids and Jerry went with him.Chet died on January 28, 1955. He is buried in St. George. Blaine is buried in Gunlock near his mother's grave. I remember Blaine telling me how awful he felt when he received the telegram telling him of Chet's death. Blaine was such a thoughtful boy. Whenever his ship would dock and he had a couple of days leave he would always
come home.I lived in Pioche the whole time the kids were growing up and for some years after. Then in 1975, in August, I moved to Yerington, Nevada. I had been so sick and wasn't getting better. My kids felt I needed to be nearer to them and to a good doctor. It was so hard for me to get to a doctor in Pioche as he was in Caliente and not driving made it harder. I sold my home in Pioche and moved to Yerington -- buying a trailer house there. I missed Pioche and my friends there but I have made new friends In Yerington too.
I believe my most valuable friend is Dr. Beams. He found out that I was not only bleeding from a hylia hernia but two ulcers. I had lost so much blood that I needed a blood transfusion. The lab technician couldn't get over that I was still alive with so little blood. Then Dr. Beams told me to get out and walk. I do now and feel so much better. I walk nearly every place I have to go except church and I ride there with a neighbor. I have bad days but I have felt so much better since being under Dr. Beams' care and taking his advice.
I am now 84 years old and have led a full life, a busy life and certainly a rewarding life.
CHET AND MARY TRUMAN ELMER
by daughter, Frances Elmer Robbins
Chet and Mary were married in 1925 in the St. George temple and shortly after moved to Pioche, Nevada. They stayed there for awhile and then moved to Tooele, Utah. Their stay in Utah lasted until the early 1930s when they returned to Pioche. This time they stayed and made Pioche their home. They built a small, comfortable, compact home on the hill near the old tram that crossed the main road at that time. Mary's niece, Florence and husband, Justin Lamb lived next dear. A cousin, Wanda Bowler McAllister lived around the hill a little ways so Mary was always on hand to dispense
advice.The only employment in the area was the mines so all the men were miners. Many spent their entire working life in the mines. Chet contracted the dreaded black lung from his years in the mine.
In 1937 Chet's brother, Bill, and wife Mabel (Mary’s sister) moved to Panaca looking for work. They lived in Panaca one year and then moved to Pioche. Mary was glad to have Mabel close by as they had always been close as young girls and having married brothers they were even closer. Bill and Mabel had three children at that time. The oldest, a daughter, Frances, and two boys, Jerry and Blaine. They had two more boys born in Pioche. They were David and Richard. Richard was born in November and Mabel died the following January. Mary and Chet had no children so Mary helped with the children. One day Bill came to them and said he couldn't stay there any longer and "gave" the children to Chet and Mary. They now had a ready-made family. They wanted to keep the family together and did so with the exception of the oldest boy, Jerry, who later went to Utah to live with other relatives on a ranch. There was more to do for a young, growing boy than roaming the hills and a chance he could fall Into an abandoned "glory hole." Mary worried a great deal about that happening. Her first concern was always for her children. Jerry later moved to Montana to live with his father and step-mother. Jerry later moved to Yerington, Nevada in the late 60's or early 70's. He and his family now reside In Fallon, Nevada.
Not having had a family and then finding themselves with a ready made family was a challenge and a change in their lives. It was a big responsibility but they did it with much sacrifice and love. Mary often said before she got her family that she knew all there was to know about raising children and could dispense medical advice to their mothers, but after she got her a family she knew absolutely nothing!
Mary's younger sister, Viola, also moved to Pioche to live with her husband, Max, so Mary had more family around. She was close to Viola, Max and their two children, Marine and Karl.
With their enlarged family they had outgrown their little house so they sold their house to Bob Hammond and bought the Wllliams' home that was closer to the schools and church.
They were active in the church and held many positions. One of Mary's favorite jobs was working in the primary with the children. She loved children as was evident thru the years as she would do many things for them and tell little stories about many that she came in contact with in one way or another.
Chet became too ill to work so Mary went to work to support the family. She worked in the Bank Club restaurant for a number of years, then she obtained a job at the Pioche Grade School as a cook for the lunch program. She held this job for eighteen years. Many a child that was a "picky" eater at home was an eager eater of Mary's meals. She worked hard to make sure the kids had good, wholesome, well-balanced meals. They loved her cinnamon rolls, homemade rolls and cakes. She was tickled pink at their appetites. The teachers always enjoyed the treats along with the meals.
Mary became "Aunt Mary" to almost everyone, young and old alike when her daughter called her Aunt Mary. Frances was older when their mother passed away so Mary remained "Aunt Mary". The boys called her "Mom" as she was the only mother they could remember. Chet was "Dad". She always taught her family of their biological father and mother, wanting them to know they had other parents. They were lucky, they had two sets of very special parents. Chet and Mary's home was always open to the friends of their children. Mary often said, "If they're here I know where they are and what they’re doing". Chet always liked to take the boys and their friends fishing and later on hunting. He had the "patience of Job" with them.
Chet passed away in 1955 and Mary continued to live in Pioche and raise her boys. She still had David and Richard at home, and Blaine was in the Navy. She had her brother Rod and his wife Emma to turn to for help and guidance. She enjoyed a very special and close relationship with them and their family.
Then in the early 70's Mary's health began to fail a little and she had to move to a lower altitude. She sold her home in Pioche and moved to Yerington, Nevada to be closer to her family. Frances, David and Richard all lived there. Mary spoke a lot about her years in Pioche, the good times there, and her friends and would go back to visit whenever she got the chance.
Mary enjoyed a busy life in Yerington. She was active in church, the senior citizens and her walking. The doctor in Yerington put her on a regimen of walking and you could see her walking all over Yerington. It improved her health and she made new friends as she did her walking. The doctor had her tell the other senior citizens the benefits of the walking.
In 1985 Mary's health was such that she moved to Fallon to live near her granddaughter, Jill Pursel and family. Her granddaughters Jill and Robyn gave her lots of tender loving care. She enjoyed their families and the great-grandkids learned a lot from listening to her stories about the days of riding horses, to the horse and buggy, to cars, trains and airplanes. They enjoyed hearing about the Indians that Grandpa Truman would let camp at his ranch near Veyo, Utah -- the "Old Truman Ranch”.
She was kept young by great-grandson Matthew. He would go over to her place every morning for his breakfast. No one could cook an egg like his grandma. She would get down in the dirt and play trucks with him and many a time they would walk down the lane to get the mail or meet his sisters and brother when they came from school.
Long trips in a car were too much for her so she w6uld fly to Salt Lake where she would go to Tooele and visit her daughter Frances. She said flying was the only way to go. Then Mary suffered a stroke in December 1987 and had to be put in a rest home. Not a day passed that Robyn and Jill and their families didn't go see her. The great grandkids enjoyed visiting her and Matthew would push her around in her wheel chair. They still go back now and visit the other patients in the rest home.
Mary passed away July 20, 1988 at the young age of 92. She Is missed but she is with others who love her also. When Matthew wanted to know where his grandma had gone we were explaining to him that she had gone to heaven and was with so many people that loved her. We told him who they were. Our little Ashtyn (a great-granddaughter to Mary) had passed away on July 8, 1987, so we told Matthew that Grandma was probably sitting in a rocking chair rocking baby Ashtyn and telling her all about him. He said, "What’s her phone number, I need to call her”.
A Funeral service was held in Fallon, Nevada for Mary and then she was taken to St. George where a graveside service was held. She was laid to rest by her husband Chet.